The BELLAMY surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	15,850	2101	0.006	59
United States (1880 census)	1,889	3137	0.004	38
Change since 1880	+13961	+1036	+0.002	+21
Other Countries
Australia	1,046	1577	0.006	64
United Kingdom	5,470	1149	0.012	119

Top States for BELLAMY by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Carolina	1,746	376	0.044	435
Florida	1,675	1352	0.010	105
North Carolina	1,511	855	0.019	188
Georgia	848	1352	0.010	104
New York	828	2506	0.004	44
Top States for BELLAMY by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Carolina	1,746	376	0.044	435
North Carolina	1,511	855	0.019	188
Washington DC	75	941	0.013	131
Tennessee	669	1436	0.012	118
Kentucky	474	1323	0.012	117

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called BELLAMY live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called BELLAMY represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called BELLAMY in South Carolina than any other state, but you are more likely to find a BELLAMY by picking someone at random in South Carolina than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of BELLAMY

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the BELLAMY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the BELLAMY surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of BELLAMY in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Mixed Race	274	1.73
White (Hispanic)	247	1.56
Asian/Pacific	59	0.37
Native American/Alaskan	55	0.35
Black/African American	8,324	52.52
White (Caucasian)	6,888	43.46

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the BELLAMY surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of BELLAMY in historical publications

(origin: Local) From Bellesme, a town of France; or it may be Belami, French, a dear and excellent friend; from bel, fair or beautiful, and ami, a friend or companion.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

BELLAMY. Dr. Giles regards this as a corruption of the Norman surname Belesrae; but there is ainmdance of evidence to shew that it is the old or Norman-French Ijclamy, "fair friend," used much m the depreciatory way in which we now employ "good fellow." AHien William Rufus had scolded his chamberlain for offering him a a pair of silk hose that had cost only three shillings, and the oflicial had procured a worse pair for a mark, Robert of Gloucester makes the monarch say — "Aye bd-amii, quoth the King, these were well liought ; In this manner servo me, other ne serve me not."

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to BELLAMY

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as BELLAMY.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.